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Product Description
Amazon.ca
A young Paris housewife, Séverine, grows bored with her stable husband. When she learns of the presence of a high-class brothel in her neighborhood, she quietly goes to work there--but only during the day, until five o'clock in the afternoon. This sublime 1967 film is one of the latter-day masterpieces of the Spanish-born director Luis Buñuel, whose career forms one of the greatest and boldest arcs in cinema. By the time of Belle de Jour, Buñuel had become almost completely deadpan in his style, which not only leaves the motivation of Séverine a mystery (despite a few flashbacks to degradations of her youth), but also casts the entire plot in doubt. An old surrealist from the 1920s (when his first classic, Un Chien Andalou, was made in collaboration with Salvador Dali), Buñuel suggests that what we see may be real, or simply Séverine's imagination. Because he was the least pretentious of directors, Buñuel keeps his material playful, wicked, yet cutting. As Séverine, the impossibly lovely Catherine Deneuve uses her cool demeanor to great effect--she never breaks her deadpan, either. In 1995, after having been out of official circulation for years, Belle de Jour was re-released in America and became an unexpected art-house hit. --Robert Horton
Product Description
The porcelain perfection of Catherine Deneuve (Repulsion) hides a cracked interior in the actress’s most iconic role: Séverine, a chilly Paris housewife by night, a bordello prostitute by day. This surreal and erotic late-sixties daydream from provocateur for the ages Luis Buñuel (Viridiana) is an examination of desire and fetishistic pleasure (its characters’ and its viewers’), as well as a gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression, which was one of Buñuel’s biggest hits.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES • New high-definition digital restoration • Audio commentary featuring Michael Wood, author of the BFI Film Classics book Belle de jour • New video piece featuring writer and sexual-politics activist Susie Bright and film scholar Linda Williams • New interview with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière • Excerpt from the French television program Cinéma, featuring interviews with Carrière and actress Catherine Deneuve • Original and American release trailers • New and improved English subtitle translation • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Melissa Anderson and a 1970s interview with director Luis Buñuel
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
Description of product on Amazon is in english but product contains no english subtitles. Even the cd has english warnings about copyrighting etc. A blu-ray / dvd which you would expect hope to go the little extra of english subtitles. Stupid to market this product in north american market - even netflix isn't this stupid! Beware of the lack of effort of this product even though there is the fine print of french language!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Blu-ray
This blu-ray & DVD release is basically a stripped down version of the European release of this film. There are no supplements or subtitles whatsoever. The Criterion release is so much better & is worth the extra $7 for this brilliant film. The picture quality is also better on the Criterion. It's a huge shame this isn't the region A version of the British region B release! This would have been worth the money if it had all the supplements of the British release! This was huge opportunity missed! My recommendation is to avoid this at all costs!
By Bob
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
French, just French. Lovely language, especially if you understand it (so I'm told). This disc has no English content: no English audio and NO ENGLISH SUBTITLES.
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4.1 out of 5 stars
Most recent customer reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars
NO English subtitles, no commentary, no extras
This review is for the version by Alliance Films Release Date: Sep 4 2012 ASIN: B008OTGBMU.
I'm used to important French films always having English subtitles. Read more
I'm used to important French films always having English subtitles. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Keith Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars
Belle de Jour on BLU-RAY: great movie with a great transfer but....
Great movie with a great transfer but....it is a region B blu-ray. This is the european edition. You will need a blu-ray player which is switchable to region B. Read more
Published on July 13 2010 by L. Chausse
4.0 out of 5 stars
An unbalance look at female sexual perversion.
Belle de Jour most definitely belongs to the realm of cinematic classics. It is arguably the most accessible of Bunuel's films and probably the best introduction to his work... Read more
Published on Dec 2 2007 by Jenny J.J.I.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Boring de jour....
Horrible example of passe erotica...PG-13 by today's standards. Not in the same league as The Story of O, Emmanuel, or The Image. Read more
Published on Nov 20 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
Served hot.
The best film Martin Scorcese has been involved with since *The Last Temptation of Christ* is one he didn't direct: 1967's *Belle de Jour*, by master-director Luis Bunuel. Read more
Published on July 31 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars
Don't listen to the complaints; the quality is FINE
First, let's get something straight: Belle de Jour was shot 35 years ago in France. It's just not ever going to look as clean, sharp, and saturated as a newer movie. Read more
Published on July 12 2002 by Wing J. Flanagan
1.0 out of 5 stars
5 stars for the movie 1 for the dvd
Halfway, I had to stop watching the movie. I could not stand the audio! This is a great movie acted by one of the great forces of nature - Catherine Deneuve. Read more
Published on July 11 2002 by C. Court
5.0 out of 5 stars
Top Notch Movie
Directing, acting, and the general feel of this movie is magic. Of course I watch it to see Deneuve an absolutely enchanting, cool, gorgeous female in every sense of the word. Read more
Published on May 11 2002 by Larry Stephan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unique, Strange, and Memorable
The premise of BELLE DU JOUR is well known. A young, beautiful, and slightly frigid doctor's wife (Catherine Deneuve) secretly harbors fantasies of being dominated, humiliated,... Read more
Published on May 9 2002 by Gary F. Taylor
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Film, but don't blame Criterion
Several people have posted here blaming Criterion for a lousy job on the DVD transfer. They're right that it's not a great job, but blame Mirimax. Read more
Published on May 8 2002 by KS
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